Exoskeletons, Robo Rats and Synthetic Skin: The Pentagon’s Cyborg Army

Eyes that are alert and steady. Skin that's sensitive to the touch. Arms that bend and grasp. To an unknowing observer, troops in the next-generation military might look much like today's.

But those eyes are veiled by self-assembling contact lenses that transmit text messages and take blood pressure readings. That skin is made up of nanowires laid onto flexible rubber. And the arm underneath? A prosthetic -- controlled by brain implant.

The Pentagon wants troops to be faster, stronger and more resilient. And with help from robotics, nanotechnology and neuroscience, the military's cyborg army -- from human troops to rat-bot recruits -- is getting prepped for battle.

Above: Neurally Controlled Prosthetics

In less than 10 years, Darpa's Revolutionizing Prosthetics program has transformed artificial limbs. Prosthetic arms, like the DEKA model, are already wired to respond to toe movements. Next up? Arms that are fully integrated with a wearer's neural signals.

A collaboration led by Johns Hopkins researchers will start human trials on their Modular Prosthetic Limb this year. Micro-arrays are implanted into the brain, allowing a user to operate the prosthetic -- which includes 22-degrees of motion, independent finger movement and weighs only 9 pounds -- with their thoughts alone.

Photo: DEKA

Troop Telepathy

Pentagon-backed efforts to create a computer-human mind meld have been ongoing for years. One major long-term goal? Troops who can communicate from a distance without saying a word, thanks to computer-mediated telepathy.

Last year, Darpa, the Pentagon's blue-sky research arm, launched
Silent Talk. The program will use EEG to read word-specific brain signals, then decipher the signals and create a brain wave dictionary that's generalizable across minds. Once that's done, Darpa wants a pre-prototype device that can read brain waves, translate them, then transmit them to the mind of one's fellow interlocutor.

Photo: Boeing

Brain-Controlled Rat Sleuths

From shark stealth-spies to honeybee bomb detectors, the Pentagon's funded research into a menagerie of animal recruits. And with their ultra-sensitive noses and compact size, rats could one day replace dogs as the go-to for sniffing out bombs, biothreats and even disaster survivors.

With the right brain implants, of course. Researchers at the University of Florida in Gainesville, funded by Darpa, inserted electrodes into rat's brains in three regions: scent, pleasure and movement. Stimulating rat reward centers trained the rodents to sniff out threats like TNT. Scientists could then detect and record the specific brain wave patterns triggered when the rats detected different targets.

And in Japan, researchers this week unveiled RatCar. Neural brain implants allowed rats to control small motorized robots using their thoughts alone.

Video: BoxVID

Exoskeletons For Super-charged Troops

Wearable robotic suits that amplify troop strength and endurance are well on their way to battle. The latest Raytheon Sarcos model -- likened to an "Iron Man suit" -- includes claw-like hand extensions and gives troops 20 times their natural strength and endurance.

Not to be outdone, Lockheed Martin's HULC model uses robotic leg braces that allow wearers to carry 200-pound loads and expend less energy on grueling tasks. Right now, that exoskeleton is undergoing Army trials at the Natick Soldier System Center.

Photo: Raytheon

Self-Assembling Contact Lenses

Next-generation contact lenses, comprised of sensors, antennae, semiconductor circuits and LEDs, would display key visual data -- the view from a gun camera's scope, or even a text message -- right onto a user's eye.

With funding from the National Science Foundation, Researchers at the University of Washington have already tested the lenses in rabbits, and in a presentation at an Institute for Defense and Government Advancement conference, they noted that they're working to boost pixel count and incorporate color.

In a war-zone, the lenses would have a second application: Additional sensors could monitor health metrics like blood glucose levels and heart rate.

Photo: University of Washington

Monkey-Robot Mind Meld

Sure, troops might one day communicate telepathically. But they might also control drones, computers -- and weapons -- using a brain-computer interface instead of a button or a trigger.

Monkeys have been doing it for years. In a series of experiments funded by Darpa, Duke University neurologists implanted monkey brains with electrodes, then trained the simian cyborgs to feed themselves bananas from a robotic arm and direct a 200-pound “humanoid robot” walking on a treadmill.

Photo: Duke University

Lab-Grown Blood For Injured Troops

Mega-doses of universal-donor red blood units might one day transform trauma care into a simple stop at the blood bank.

With funding from Darpa, biotech firm Arteriocyte recently shipped off their first batch of lab-grown blood -- derived from umbilical cord-blood units -- to the FDA. The ultimate goal is a compact, self-contained system that pumps out endless units for quick and easy triage.

Photo: Republic Polytechnic

Brain Implants for Injured Minds

Active-duty troops won't be the only ones getting the cyborg treatment. Vets suffering from traumatic brain injuries, which afflict 10 to 20 percent of those returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, could one day receive brain implants to repair their damaged gray matter.

A team led by Stanford and Brown Universities, and funded by Darpa, is creating brain implants that can act as "replacement parts" for impaired areas. The implants would be specific enough to signal single neurons, substituting for circuits that are damaged and restoring normal brain function.

Photo: Positiveneuro

Cyborg Critters

From remote-controlled flying beetles to honeybees that sniff out land minds, insect hordes are now being programmed to do military bidding.

Pentagon-backed researchers have made rapid strides with moths, after a team at Georgia Tech figured out how to keep them alive long enough to be useful. Micro-mechanical systems, or MEMS, along with microphones or sensors, are implanted during the larval stage, and fuse with the growing insect's tissue. The moths can then be operated via remote control, and act as stealthy spies or biothreat detectors in hard-to-reach locations.

Illo: AFCEA International

Synthetic Skin

Engineered skin tissue is already used in wound and burn repair. But earlier this year, scientists at Stanford and UC Berkeley both developed entirely synthetic skins that are sensitive enough to detect the touch of a butterfly.

Both rely on a combination of flexible rubber with either nanowires or electrodes. And synthetic "skin" would do cyborg double-duty: ultra-sensitive human prosthetics or robot limbs. That sensitivity would give artificial limbs the ability to accomplish tasks that require a subtle touch rather than just a firm grasp.